A Moment in Time:My thoughts:Inspiration can come at some of the strangest times. I was lying in bed, disgustingly late, after a busy week and I started thinking about the episode Timelash, specifically, what was going through the Commander’s mind as he was doing an imitation of a berserker.I found this episode to be most intriguing on two fronts, the temporal manipulation aspect, and the interplay between Straker and Lake. It is well known that, in my stories, there is more between these two than just a casual friendship.I open this story right after Ed has damaged the alien craft, preventing it from destroying the base. He goes to Virginia’s side, seeing that she has either been killed or has succumbed to the alien time force. To me, Ed touching her hair is a moment that is most revealing. It is a very intimate gesture, akin to caressing an exposed shoulder or kissing the nape of her neck. I suspect, had Ginny been conscious, she would have become quite unglued.Ed is a creature of duty and he knows that he has to find and destroy the device responsible for the time field. Reluctantly, he leaves Virginia behind and focuses on finding the equipment that Turner had modified. In Absence, Straker had noticed the radar unit being worked on, a fact that he remembers on the way down elevator.I believe Straker was not completely unaware of his surroundings although it is likely that the overdose of X-50, combined with the mental stress, caused him to become single minded, focused only on finding the device, and assuring himself that everything had returned to normal. Even though his rational thought process had been compromised he still recognized Miss Ealand and had the wherewithal to have her hold his pursuers in the elevator.Once Ed knows that all has returned to normal, his thoughts turn back to Virginia and he climbs the ladder to the roof where he left her. By now the commander is running on pure adrenaline and when he realizes she is alive, he crashes.While not everyone is keen on the idea of Straker and Lake as a couple, it is, in my opinion, hard to deny the chemistry between them. From a strictly canon point of view, it is quite possible that the relationship could have developed along the same lines as Picard and Guinan, in Star Trek TNG, beyond friends, beyond family. I am portraying them that way in my story A Departure from the Norm. It would have been interesting to see where the writer’s would have taken it, had the series continued. But regardless, it is very clear to me that these two people were more than just associates. I hope everyone enjoyed this take on Timelash.